Appointment of Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

October 20, 2015

Members of the Rutgers Community:

I am pleased to announce that, after an eight-month national search, I have appointed Michele Norin as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective December 1, 2015. Ms. Norin currently serves as Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at the University of Arizona, where she has held positions of increasing leadership and responsibility in information technology over the past 26 years.

Senior Vice President Norin will report directly to me in this newly elevated position and will serve in the president’s cabinet as a member of the senior leadership team at Rutgers. As director of the systemwide Office of Information Technology, she will work closely with the chancellors and senior vice presidents and will lead the implementation of the university’s five-year plan to redesign business processes, deploy new information technology infrastructure, and centralize administrative and academic IT services. She will also work closely with faculty on the enhancement of instructional technology and advanced research computing services.

Ms. Norin, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona and a master’s in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University, has been vice president and CIO at Arizona since 2007, providing primary oversight for IT-related issues and strategies. Like Rutgers, the University of Arizona is a research-intensive, land-grant institution with two medical schools, and it ranks 19th among U.S. public universities in research and development expenditures.

Among several awards she has received for her leadership in information technology, Ms. Norin was one of seven university officials to earn Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders Award for 2015.

I want to thank and applaud Don Smith, who has served with dedication as Vice President for Information Technology and CIO since 2007 and as a member of the Computer Science faculty for more than 25 years. Don, who informed us in February of his intention to retire, has agreed to stay on and assist Michele in the transition to new IT leadership.

My thanks as well to the search committee, led by Senior Vice President Bruce Fehn, for its diligent work over the past several months.

I look forward to working with Michele, and I know you will warmly welcome her to the Rutgers community.

Sincerely,

Bob Barchi